A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) has two metallic ferromagnetic layers separated by a very thin nonmagnetic insulating tunnel barrier layer, wherein the tunneling current perpendicularly through the layers depends on the relative orientation of the magnetizations in the two ferromagnetic layers. The high magnetoresistance at room temperature and generally low magnetic switching fields of the MTJ makes it a promising candidate for the use in magnetic sensors, such as a read head in a magnetic recording disk drive, and non-volatile memory elements or cells for magnetic random access memory (MRAM).
IBM's U.S. Pat. No. 5,650,958 describes an MTJ for use as a magnetoresistive read head and as a non-volatile memory cell wherein one of the ferromagnetic layers has its magnetization fixed, such as by being pinned by exchange coupling with an adjacent antiferromagnetic layer, and the other ferromagnetic layer is “free” to rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field in the range of interest of the read head or memory cell. When the MTJ is a disk drive magnetoresistive read head, the magnetization of the fixed or pinned ferromagnetic layer will be generally perpendicular to the plane of the disk, and the magnetization of the free ferromagnetic layer will be generally parallel to the plane of the disk but will rotate slightly when exposed to magnetic fields from the recorded data on the disk. When the MTJ is a memory cell, the magnetization of the free ferromagnetic layer will be either parallel or antiparallel to the magnetization of the pinned ferromagnetic layer.
IBM's U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,410 describes an MTJ magnetoresistive read head with longitudinal biasing of the free ferromagnetic layer in which the MTJ device has electrical leads that connect to the sense circuitry. The leads are in contact with the insulating material in the read gap and the gap material is in contact with the magnetic shields so that the leads are electrically insulated from the shields. IBM's U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,548 describes an MTJ magnetoresistive read head with a narrow gap in which the leads are in direct contact with the magnetic shields, so that the shields also carry current from the sense circuitry.
In addition to MTJ devices, there are other current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) sensors that operate with the sense current directed perpendicularly to the planes of two ferromagnetic layers separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer. One other type of CPP sensor is a spin-valve (SV) sensor in which the nonmagnetic spacer layer is electrically conductive. Thus in a MTJ magnetoresistive read head, the spacer layer is typically alumina (Al2O3) while in a CPP SV magnetoresistive read head the spacer layer is typically copper. CPP SV read heads are described by A. Tanaka et al., “Spin-valve heads in the current-perpendicular-to-plane mode for ultrahigh-density recording”, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, 38 (1): 84–88 Part 1 January 2002.
In the previously cited '958 patent, the pinned ferromagnetic layer is the lower ferromagnetic layer and has an outer perimeter greater than that of the upper free ferromagnetic layer. This MTJ device is patterned by ion milling down through the upper free ferromagnetic layer, stopping at the barrier layer. Alumina is then deposited on the sides of the free ferromagnetic layer on top of the barrier layer. The ion milling process suffers from the disadvantages of redeposition of conductive material and the inability to precisely control the removal process due to uncertainties in the ion milling rate and film thicknesses, which makes it difficult to avoid damaging the pinned ferromagnetic layer.
What is needed is an MTJ device with a pinned ferromagnetic layer having an outer perimeter greater than that of the free ferromagnetic layer and that can be fabricated without the disadvantages of the prior art ion milling process.